Genome-wide association studies of stress score in a Korean Cohort

Stress. 2021 Oct 26:1-7. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2021.1992380. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTDespite ongoing research on factors affecting stress, there is a shortage of research on genetic variation using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Thus, this study aims to identify genes that may affect the risk of stress in a large-scale Korean cohort. The stress survey used in this study consisted of 40 questions, organized into the following four categories: 10 questions on General Stress (GenST); 10 questions on Mental Stress (MenST); 10 questions on Physical Stress (PhyST); and 10 questions on Activity Stress (ActST). An overall stress score was calculated as the sum of the survey scores from each category, with a high stress score defined as a stress score in which the proportion of insomnia was large. Genome-wide association studies of approximately 320,000 SNPs acquired from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were conducted to explore the risk of stress in the four categories. As a result, three loci were identified for GenST, no significant loci were observed for MenST, four loci were identified for PhyST, and two loci were identified for ActST. The most significant SNP of GenST (rs9353437) was located in an epidermal growth factor gene (eyes shut homolog, EYS) and expressed in the photoreceptor layer of the retina. The genome-wide association studies' (GWAS) results of PhyST showed a significant SNP (rs4924370) in a spliceosomal factor (Aquarius ...
Source: Stress - Category: Research Authors: Source Type: research